Comments | tongodeon: Find a Better Bank

tongodeon

Find a Better Bank

Jun 08, 2010 14:59

I've been banking with Wells Fargo since the mid 90s when I moved to California. I've been getting tired of Wells Fargo specifically and big commercial banks generally for a variety of reasons:

- Their penalty and fee schedules are predatory. Minimum balances, overdraft penalties, ATM fees, and other issues can get very expensive ( Read more... )

bank, personal

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Re: Clarify for me... ikkyu2 June 10 2010, 22:25:50 UTC

You do understand that Ally Bank is GMAC, bailed out and under a new name? If you want to give a thumb in the eye to the too-big-to-fail, bailouts-for-all-as-long-as-they're-rich crew, signing up for an account with Ally Bank is exactly the opposite of doing that.

(GMAC was GM's financing division, whose shenanigans were the proximal cause - not the first cause - of the events that brought the company down.)

Re: Clarify for me... tongodeon June 10 2010, 22:51:21 UTC

You do understand that Ally Bank is GMAC, bailed out and under a new name?

Keenly. That's what I was referring to when I wrote "not sure to what extent Ally's past as GMAC, helped them unfairly sweeten their deal".

On the other hand I've heard that GMAC Bank (a bank now headquartered in Midvale Utah and called Ally Bank) separated from General Motors Acceptance Corporation (a lending institution now headquartered in Detroit and called Ally Financial Services) prior to GMAC Financial (not bank) getting TARP dollars. What actually happened remains unclear, and I've been meaning to dig into it more as time permits.

In the meantime, I should clarify my objectives. One of my goals is to mitigate systemic risk, not "give a thumb in the eye" of anyone. As such I'm getting out of Wells Fargo, the nation's fifth largest bank which holds 364,120,000,000 in assets, to join Ally Bank whose two branches hold only $91,538,972 in assets. If Ally Bank fails, it will join the hundreds of smaller banks which have failed this year, rather than the ( ... )

Re: Clarify for me... ikkyu2 June 11 2010, 01:47:24 UTC

What actually happened remains unclear, and I've been meaning to dig into it more as time permits.What actually happened is really obscure. No one knows for sure, and there are a number of people - journalist I read, Wall St bond traders I went to school with - people better connected than I - who tried to find out and weren't able to. There was definitely a back-door, off-balance sheet transaction that salvaged the company's obligations, and we're talking $125 billion of booked assets (other people's liabilities) that had a book value of less than 50 cents on the dollar and which was made whole entirely, in order to satisfy GMACFin's creditors with the bailout arrangement (they were beating down the door to liquidate all of GM's assets, that was the alternative option ( ... )

Re: Clarify for me... tongodeon June 11 2010, 17:09:27 UTC

I would totally support any inclination you had to give a "thumb in the eye" to too-big-to-fail banks, by the way.The ones who were forced by the Fed to take TARP money, ones who were teetering on failure, or all banks that are too big to fail? In the context of this post, these are separate groups ( ... )

Re: Clarify for me... ikkyu2 June 11 2010, 17:43:53 UTC

Really? I suggested that you put your money in a local community bank, like I did; and in return you accuse me of an act of spite, morally equivalent to stabbing someone on their way out of the health clinic?

You've misinterpreted me. Go ahead and put your money in Ally Bank, all the while boasting that you're minimizing system risk by doing so; and insult anyone who claims otherwise. You'll get the intended result: everyone who will still tolerate conversing with you will praise your meritorious decisions.

Re: Clarify for me... tongodeon June 11 2010, 22:26:31 UTC

Hold on a minute. Let's rewind and figure out how we got here.

You initiated this conversation by asking me whether I "wanted to give a thumb in the eye" of bailout banks. I wasn't insulted; I took this as a metaphorical exaggeration to figuratively communicate your thought. I assumed you selected "thumbs in eyes" to emphasize spiteful intent toward the reprehensible "bailouts-for-all-as-long-as-they're-rich crew" in question. I didn't think you were saying my desire to change banks was "morally equivalent" to sticking my literal thumbs in anyone's literal eyes, just that this was how you wanted to represent the intent ( ... )

Re: Clarify for me... ikkyu2 June 11 2010, 22:51:16 UTC

Hey, I'd have no moral problem with stabbing a financial sector arbitrageur, on his way out of the imploding skyscraper that housed Lehman Bros., headed to the airport to enjoy the new Tuscan villa he bought with his ill-gotten gains at the expense of the American taxpayer. Give him the shiv, I say. Stabbing a sick person on his way out of the clinic seemed more evil than that to me.

Anyway, you're right that we're on the wrong foot. I really wasn't sure that you understood the full implications of the Ally-GMAC connection, especially since I am not sure that anyone really understands them as the key information has not been made public. I learn a lot from your posts; maybe you had seen some key bit of analysis I'd missed. Wasn't trying to be patronizing.

I do think Ally Bank is just essentially continuing the bad guys' business under a new name and with a new bailout. While the bailout was unavoidable, I see no particular argument in favor of supporting the entities that made it possible, if better alternatives are available.

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